Jenny Lind : röstens betydelse för hennes mediala identitet, en studie av hennes konstnärsskap 1838-49

Jenny Lind was an opera singer in the years 1838–49. During this time she was given the status f an icon mainly due to her image. She was almost sanctified by the press. Her “private personality” was assigned a saintly purity, and she became a stereotype symbol of femininity. This dissertation investigates what factors interacted that made this possible, and highlight the importance of Lind’s voice for her image. Jenny Lind’s voice was a high soprano, but not very powerful. By positioning herself in a singing tradition that corresponded to her voice’s advantages, she managed to develop an equilibrium, which she used well. Lind’s voice was often perceived as unusual; she had a particular voice timbre. She also had a vocal defect. Her tones from f’–a’ are described as “husky”, and sometimes hoarse. This means that her voice let through more air than her vocal cords could use. My argument is that it was the voice damage that created unique timbre that the contemporary critics perceived as particularly “feminine”. Lind’s weak and damaged voice corresponds to the nineteenth century’s female ideal: fragile and weak. Moreover, Lind needed to adept her roles to her damage voice and the consequence was that also her interpretations were perceived “feminine”. In other words, Lind exerted a gender performative voice processing. All of Jenny Lind’s roles became representatives of femininity, regardless of whether it was the role’s purpose or not. Lind adapted all her interpretations to her weak voce, it's strength being high notes, pianissimo dynamics and equilibrism, and gave all her roles a genderstereotyped voice